


When the Music Stopped

by opalmatrix



Category: Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
Genre: Deaf, Disability, Female Characters, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, POV Female Character, Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters, newly disabled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 21:39:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Petrova helps Posy handle some very bad news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Music Stopped

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kinetikatrue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinetikatrue/gifts).



> For Hurt/Comfort Bingo. The prompt was "Loss of Hearing," and [**kinetikatrue**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kinetikatrue/pseuds/kinetikatrue) requested Posy Fossil from _Ballet Shoes_. (I'm personalizing my h/c bingo stories.) Beta by **[smillaraaq](http://smillaraaq.livejournal.com/)**

The door to the doctor's waiting room opened, and Posy came out. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were wide. To anyone who didn't know her, she would have looked angry, but Petrova wondered whether she was trying not to cry from frustration.

Behind her was Dr. Hammond, the ear expert at Great Ormond Street Hospital, looking solemn and grandfatherly. Posy sat down by Petrova and stared up at him. But the doctor spoke to Petrova: "Hearing loss is near-total in the left ear, and about 85 percent in the right."

Posy looked at him, then at Petrova. "What?" she said, probably more loudly than she intended.

Dr. Hammond started to speak again, but Petrova held up her hand. "A moment, please, Doctor."

She pulled a small notebook out of her coat pocket, opened it, and wrote quickly as she could, in the drafting hand she'd learned for technical drawing: _He says your left ear is almost completely deaf, and the right about 85%._

Posy gnawed her lip for a moment. "What can you do?"

"Nothing," said the doctor. "I suspect otosclerosis." He was still talking to Petrova and not looking at Posy. Petrova squashed the urge to shout at him.

"Doctor, please. Pretend I'm not here and talk to her." _He says he can't do anything. It's something called otosklarosis (?). I told him to talk to you, not me,_ she wrote.

"Yes," said Posy. She sounded as though she were trying to speak quietly. "I'm right here, and I'm not a child. I'm twenty-six. If you can't fix it, who can?"

The doctor really looked at her, then, and he grew rather red in the face. "Possibly some specialists in the States," he said, but his eyes kept sliding over to Petrova. "You must understand, it would take very delicate surgery of the ears themselves."

_Maybe some American doctors could operate on your ears,_ Petrova wrote.

"Who are these doctors?" Posy asked, her voice tight.

"I have the list here," said Dr. Hammond, but he passed it to Petrova.

She didn't reach for it until Posy burst out, "Oh, just take it, Petrova! He needn't talk to me if it's that bothersome!" She stood up and put on her coat. Her nose was red.

Petrova took the list reluctantly, glanced at it, and tucked it into her notebook.The paper had the name of the condition as well as the names of three doctors in three different hospitals, all in different states. In America, that could mean thousands of miles between them. "Thank you," she said, cooly, and arose herself.

"Please, call me if you should have any additional questions, Miss Fossil," said the doctor, earnestly. 

Petrova didn't trust herself to speak, so she just nodded. Posy was already sweeping out the door. Petrova hurried after her. Posy probably wasn't seeing clearly, and she wouldn't be able to hear approaching traffic.

She caught up with her sister at the street corner. Luckily Posy seemed to notice her: Petrova did not want to startle her by grabbing her arm. Posy's face was all red and white blotches, and she was gamely trying not to cry. Together, they walked to Petrova's Vauxhall and drove out of town.

At the little cottage near the airfield in Bromley, Petrova made tea and toast, and set out a tin of biscuits that Pauline had sent from America. "I'm not hungry," said Posy, but she took a chocolate biscuit. After that, Petrova managed to get a piece of toast and a cup of tea into her. Posy swallowed the last bite of toast and then messed about with her teaspoon and the dregs of her tea. 

"Petrova," she said, suddenly. Petrova looked up from the cup of tea she'd just poured. "Petrova, if I can't hear, I can't _dance!_ "

She laid her head down on the cloth and burst into sobs. Petrova moved her chair close to Posy's and wrapped her arms around her sister as best she could. Posy cried more bitterly and longer than she ever had as a child. Finally, as the sobs trailed off, she nestled into Petrova's arms, white and shivering. "I'm such a mess," she said, stuffily.

Petrova gently disengaged one arm and reached for the notebook and pen she'd left on the table. _You need a hot bath and some sleep,_ she wrote. _I'll call Pauline after you've gone to bed. She'll know what to do. She knows lots of people._

"That's true," said Posy, at last.

She let herself be led upstairs. Petrova started the bath running, sprinkling it with scented bath salts that Pauline had given her last Christmas. Posy sat in the armchair in what had been Gum's room, looking blankly at the cases of small fossils that decorated the walls. Petrova thought for a moment, and then rummaged in her own room and came up with Lang's _Blue Fairy Book_. She placed it gently in Posy's lap. Posy looked at her as though she'd gone mad, then smiled faintly and opened it.

Petrova thought Posy might read a bit more after her bath, but she was so sleepy by then that all she did was ask Petrova to sit with her a while. Petrova convinced her, by gestures, to let Petrova brush her hair. Then Petrova pulled a straight chair over to the side of the bed, turned out the light, and gently held Posy's hand.

"Good night," murmured Posy. She was asleep almost at once, but Petrova stayed with her for a quarter of an hour afterward.

At last, she let go of Posy's hand and got up to go to her own room. As she passed the armchair, she noticed that the _Blue Fairy Book_. was face-down on the seat. She picked it up and read, in the faint light from the hall:

> _"Now," said the Fairy to Beauty, "I suppose you would like me to send for all your brothers and sisters to dance at your wedding?"_
> 
> _And so she did, and the marriage was celebrated the very next day with the utmost splendor, and Beauty and the Prince lived happily ever after._

Petrova closed the book gently and set it down on the table next to the armchair. Then she went out and shut the door softly behind her.

In her own room, with the model aeroplanes of her childhood hanging from the ceiling, she flung herself face down into her pillows and cried at last, trying to do so quietly even though she knew Posy couldn't hear her. She let herself have ten minutes of it, then she blew her nose, washed her face, and went to telephone Pauline.

 


End file.
